La Fusta
While rustling up dishes around town made with blood for a future article, I kept thinking about morcilla, then how I would love to return to Buenos Aires and eat monstrous amounts of beef. That’s not likely to happen in the immediate future. I went as far as checking airfare (also, it’s the only city I’m aware of with a hotel bearing my name, so that gives them an edge) but in the end, I turned to La Fusta, one of a handful of Argentine steakhouses in Queens.
I got my morcilla, a particularly messy and gooey specimen with chewy ribbons spilling from the casing after being cut open. This would not be the blood sausage to covert the squeamish. (Also, I’m still mastering the focus on this point-and-shoot, which is trickier to use than my usual dSLR. I’ve been testing it out at low-risk restaurants and not completely succeeding.)
A little garlic-heavy chimichurri certainly perks up any heavy, meaty item, though.
The half order of skirt steak was big enough to be a full serving and a bargain at $15.50. “You’ll have the mashed potatoes?” prodded our server. No, just the standard French fries.
He then cajoled James, who’d gone with the Italian part of the menu, ordering a veal parmigiana/milanesa napolitana (not sure why the geography changes in Spanish) covered in possibly an entire ball of melted mozzarella. “Linguine?” I liked that the server had such strong ideas about sides…even if I didn’t follow his suggestion.
As if that weren’t enough cheese, we also started with a proveleta, which is a grilled round of provolone. In Argentina, they always held their shape. Here, this wedge seasoned with oregano and olive oil, had oozed and crusted into a giant frico.
And a La Fusta salad to pretend we were eating a balanced meal. Of course, there were chunks of ham and cheese in this, as well as anchovies, which we were needlessly warned about.
It’s rare to end up on Roosevelt Avenue not craving Southeast Asian or Latino food. I rarely stray beyond a Donovan’s burger. But it’s good to have Argentine restaurants (yet another cuisine lacking in Brooklyn for no good reason) as an option.
La Fusta * 8032 Baxter Ave., Elmhurst, NY
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